


caught between a dream and a movie scene

by themadspinner



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man: Far From Home, Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)
Genre: F/M, Fluff and Angst, Friends to Lovers, also the bridge, also the carnival, but a lot of angst, i'm sorry in advance, mj and peter centric, say hi to mysterio, the necklace
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-27
Updated: 2019-05-27
Packaged: 2020-03-20 04:07:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,235
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18984943
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/themadspinner/pseuds/themadspinner
Summary: Where Peter is in love with MJ and a little, spiderweb-shaped necklace somehow gets involved.





	caught between a dream and a movie scene

**Author's Note:**

> I saw this prompt(ish) somewhere on twitter and wanted to write it, so here it is. I only read it over like once, so forgive any grammar mistakes – I wrote this in only a few days. I also apologize if it isn't completely accurate to the trailers – the timeline was more from my imagination. It also turned out a lot longer than I expected so . . . enjoy? I hope?

As they stand in a small gift shop on the streets of London, Peter watches MJ run her fingers over the necklace. He leans in and peers over her shoulder to get a better look. A small spider web, dark and attached to a thin rope cord, rests in the palm of her hand. He almost lets out a laugh at the irony. Of course the one necklace she chose would be his secret-identity-spirit-animal (he likes to think a spider would be his spirit animal). 

MJ’s catlike senses seem to sense his presence and she slowly twists her neck to look at him. Her eyes squint slightly. “Peter.”

“Hm?” He shifts his focus to her face, absentmindedly biting his lip.

“Why are you hovering?” She flicks her eyes from his eyes to where he was chewing on his lip and back to his eyes.

He quickly scrambles back to give her space, a pink blush creeping up the back of his neck and around to settle on his cheeks.

“Sorry, I- I was just trying to look at the necklace you’re holding,” he awkwardly gestures at the small necklace she still held in her hands, “you know, not like being creepy or anything.” He internally cringes.

MJ seems unimpressed, gently setting the necklace back without breaking her gaze on Peter’s embarrassed face. “Whatever, loser.”

He follows her movements as she sets the necklace down. “You don’t like it?” Peter’s eyebrows furrow in confusion. 

“No, I actually really like it. I just can’t spend that much on it since I’m saving for my family’s souvenirs,” she explains, shrugging her shoulders and turning to look at it. She sighs almost inaudibly before feeling the outline of the web and turning to head back to the group outside. She shoots Peter a small smile as she passes, lightly brushing his shoulder.

Peter stands there, glancing between MJ’s retreating figure and the small, ironically themed piece of jewelry. Would it be weird to buy it for her? On one hand, she looked like she really wants it plus he _could_ afford it, and they’re friends, right? It’d just be a friend buying another friend a gift. But what if she takes it the wrong way and he scares her away? Of course, he _does_ really like her, but he isn’t sure if she likes him back and giving her a necklace could be seen as a romantic gesture. 

Or maybe he wants to make a romantic gesture? He shakes his head at that thought. That would be a “materialistic romantic gesture” to quote MJ, and if he knows anything about her, he knows that she hates stereotypically male gestures. Their first movie night with Ned had resulted in an hour and half long commentary on how Edward perpetuates all the traits of toxic masculinity and Jacob’s whole personality consists of the stereotypical “alpha male complex” – another MJ quote. To be fair, it was their fault for suggesting they watch the whole Twilight saga.

Okay, screw it, he thinks, and grabs the necklace. She’s worth it.

━━━

Peter has the little bag containing the necklace in his backpack, tucked underneath the suit that May forced him to bring. He really didn’t want to use it, but after the whole airport incident, he decided he wanted to keep the suit close to him, rather than having to explain why he had a fully functional and realistic Spiderman suit in his suitcase. 

He still hasn’t given it to her yet, despite Ned, who jumped in excitement when Peter told him he bought MJ a necklace, claiming that his “ultimate ship was setting sail” (which earned a glare and punch in the arm from Peter), practically pushing him into the seat next to MJ on the bus to their hotel in London. Disappointingly to Ned, it didn’t work, and four hours later, on the way to the carnival, the gift bag hasn’t moved from its secure spot in Peter’s old backpack.

Peter walks beside Ned, who’s chatting closely with Betty, hanging onto her every word. _Great, now he’s the third wheel._ He glances forward at MJ walking ahead of him, her head tilted down as she takes in the words of the thick book resting in her hands. She really does look pretty.

He always thinks she looks beautiful, and tonight is no different. His eyes follow the waves of curly hair cascading over her shoulder and her back. It looks soft and glows under the dim lighting of the overhead street lights. A piece of hair is clipped back using a small spider hair clip. Peter bites his lip, trying to contain a smile that threatens to break free over his face. 

They approach the entrance of the carnival and split off into groups. Peter turns to leave with Ned, but he’s already walking towards the carousel, Betty pulling him by the hand. He sighs, adjusting his backpack and turns around, only to see that MJ is the only person still there. She looks up at him, then scans the area around them, seeming to notice how they are the only ones left.

She closes her book, her lips tugging into a small smile, “Guess that leaves us, loser.”

He laughs awkwardly and walks over to her. “Yeah, so then . . . what do you wanna do?” Peter swallows loudly, a dry feeling crawling down his throat.

“I mean, I was planning on playing all of those ‘knock this over and win a giant stuffed animal’ games, but you don’t have to, I guess,” she teases, her eyes sparkling. Her light tone shoves Peter’s worries down to the pit of his stomach, fading out.

“And pass up the chance to beat you at all of those games and win _myself_ the giant stuffed animals? Of course I’m coming,” Peter responds, the last of his nerves dissipating and a smirk growing on his face. 

“Careful, Peter,” MJ taunts, turning her head to meet his eyes, “your over inflated ego is showing.” 

“ _Technically_ ,” Peter holds up a finger, “it’s not over inflated if I have a reason to be confident. My one claim to fame is the ring toss and I will not be ashamed of it.”

“You can’t even throw something in the trash from a foot away, what makes you think I’ll believe you have a hidden talent of beating the rigged ring toss?” She laughs, a genuine smile reaching across her face.

Peter tosses his head back, a smile matching hers stretching wide, “Okay, look, that was one time. I have since improved my accuracy skills.”

She tilts her head doubtfully, letting out a small huff and shakes her head slightly. Peter finally realizes they’ve been walking towards the long row of carnival games, and they’ve stopped in front of the ring toss.

“All right, hotshot. Let’s see those ‘skills’ in action,” MJ says, grinning at him. Peter cracks his knuckles and swings his arms back and forth, stretching his shoulders.

“Watch this. Piece of cake.”

It is not a piece of cake. Somehow Peter manages to not only miss all of his tosses, but on his last try, the ring bounces off of a bottle and hits a passing girl in the face. Peter apologizes profusely, his whole face burning red in embarrassment. MJ however, is clutching her sides from laughing so hard. She can hardly breathe, tears starting to form at the corners of her eyes. 

“I can’t believe — “ she wheezes, “— you managed to — “ she took a large gulp, “— not only miss every single throw but _hit a freaking person with a plastic ring._ ”

Peter hurriedly hands the person working the booth the cash and tugs MJ by the arm away from the booth, his face still bright red. Her laughing slows to a giggle, and she wipes a tear from her face. Peter leads her over to an empty table near some food trucks, sitting down and dropping his head in hands to cover his face. 

“That was so embarrassing. I can not believe I just did that.” He runs a hand through his hair and leans onto the table.

MJ looks at him, trying to contain a smile. “So what happened to it being ‘a piece of cake’?”

Peter stares at her, distracted by the way her eyes twinkled under the shitty carnival lights. Flecks of honey sprinkled the deep brown, and if you were to ask, he couldn’t think that he’s ever seen a pair of eye prettier than hers. He smiles to himself slightly, lips twitching upwards.

“Alright, I’ll admit I was being too cocky. But I swear the rings aren’t big enough to even fit around those bottles, anyways.”

“Of course they aren’t. It’s all a huge scam to get naive consumers to waste money in hopes of winning a cheap stuffed animal,” MJ rolls her eyes.

“Are you calling me naive?”

MJ blankly stares at him. “Do you really want me to answer that?”

Peter reaches up to scratch the back of his neck, chuckling. “Uh, not really. The answer to that is definitely yes.”

MJ suddenly swallows nervously. She looks at her hands and opens her mouth to say something, closing it soon after. She licks her lips, pausing for a moment before looking up at Peter. “Do you want to go for walk? I saw a bridge, um, that we passed by the entrance, and it seemed empty.”

Peter watches as she speaks quietly, out of the ordinary for MJ. He takes in a breath at the idea of walking with her. Alone. 

“Yeah, yeah. Of course, that’d be — um, really nice.” He gives her a small smile.

They get up and head over to bridge, where the crowd thins and the noise fades out. It’s dark and no one else is around except Peter and MJ. Peter lets MJ walk ahead and he decides to take out the gift bag. They’re alone and it seems like the right moment, at least that’s what he figures.

He’s fiddling with the tiny handles, watching the way the bag swings in his hands. Preparing himself, he looks over at her to see her stop in front of him and turn to face him. “MJ, I —”

“Am Spiderman?” _Crap._

Peter blinks, his eyes widening significantly. Did he hear her right? _She knows he’s Spiderman?_ Where the hell did that even come from? And shit, he can’t let her know yet. 

“ _What?_ No, um, of- of course I’m not. That’d be — uh,” he sputters out.

She half shrugs her shoulders, “I mean, it’s kind of obvious.”

Peter clenches his jaw, furiously shaking his head. “No, no. That’s insane. I’m- I’m not- You’re mist —”

“Don’t even try to tell me I’m wrong,” she rolls her eyes, but there isn’t anger behind them, “I’m not an idiot. But apparently you are if you thought I wouldn’t figure it out. I mean, you and Ned never shut up about it, and there was no way that Spiderman ‘just happened’ to be in D.C. at the same time as the decathlon team. The exact time you went missing. Plus I literally saw you climb out of that bus when the aliens attacked.”

Peter opens his mouth, then closes it. Then repeats, furrowing his eyebrows. This isn’t exactly how he planned telling her. It was supposed to be after they were back home, maybe during a nice dinner, or even just during a movie night, and he’d casually slip in ‘oh hey, by the way, I’m Spiderman and I really care for you so I didn’t want to hide this from you anymore, so just don’t tell anyone thanks, also by the way, I really like you’. Okay, maybe that last part wasn’t really figured out yet. 

He sighs in defeat. “I- um, well, I guess I don’t have to pretend to always suddenly be out of milk when we’re hanging out and there’s a crime needing to be stopped anymore,” he chuckles nervously. He breathes out shakily, turning to look her in the eyes. 

“I never once believed that,” MJ swallows loudly and turns to face forward, walking side by side next to Peter. He doesn’t reply and they walk silently, the air slowly letting go of its tension as the stars shine overhead.

Peter slips the gift bag back into the backpack as discreetly as he can. He figures there’s been enough confessions for one night.

━━━

It’s the next day and they’re exploring the tower of London. Peter isn’t really into history that much, but seeing how MJ put down her book in favor of reading the descriptive plaques in every chamber and contently running her fingers over the ancient structure of the stone walls is definitely incentive enough to follow closely with the group as they travel from room to room. 

They go for lunch at an outside market near the Tower Bridge, enjoying some Mediterranean wraps. It’s around one when Peter feels something off. The hairs on the back of his neck stand up, and a bottomless pit seems to open up in his stomach. His hands clam up and it only takes minutes before a large, molten monster emerges from stone street in front of their group.

Immediately, Peter yells at Ned to get the group to safety, but the square is full of people frantically running for their lives, pushing and shoving to escape the fiery rocks flying from the monster’s flailing limbs. Cursing to himself, Peter finds an isolated alleyway, hurriedly throwing on the suit still stuffed in his backpack. 

Peter heads back to the square, searching for his group. He spots a few of them huddled behind a car, wincing everytime a piece of molten shrapnel is flung near them. A dark sense of dread crawls up his throat and catches in his mouth. A scream to his left snaps him back to attention and Peter jumps into action.

He tries to web the monster, but his webs melt as soon as they touch it, so he resorts to brute force. He repeatedly kicks and punches it, feeling the raw heat burn through his suit. His first goal is to get the monster away from all the people, which leads to Peter swinging all around the monster, keeping his attention as he tries to lure it over to the river. 

The monster is near the edge of the river when Peter sees MJ. She’s trying to help people escape to the other side of the square that wasn’t on fire. He sees the monster sway side to side, its long, burning arms flailing wildly. He sees MJ reach for a young girl who fell on the dock near the monster. 

He watches as she helps the girl up and sends her running towards safety. He can hear himself call out her name, telling her to run. He aims for one last hit to push the monster down, but its arm is already moving. He watches helplessly as it makes contact with MJ, sending her body flying into the stone building near the river’s edge. There’s a large crack and she crumples lifelessly into a pile at the base of the wall. 

Peter’s foot kicks the monster in the chest just as he feels his heart being ripped out of his own. The monster falls back into the river, sizzling mind numbingly loud, clouds of steam exploding everywhere. Peter lands on the dock.

He gets up and sprints towards MJ’s collapsed body, jumping through the burning rubble, clawing at the mask covering his face. He can’t breathe, he can’t hear anything except a loud ringing and the crack as she hit the wall replaying in his mind over and over again. 

“No, no, no, no, no,” he whispers to himself, “ _Please_ , no, no, no.”

He reaches her body and drops to the ground, pulling her into his arms. Her head falls back and her mouth opens slightly. He brushes a stray piece of hair behind her ear and cups her cheek. His eyes fill to the brim with tears, and his chest tightens as he tries unsuccessfully to take in a breath.

“C’mon, Em. Please, you can’t- you ca-,” he chokes back a sob, “C’mon, _please_ , wake up.”

He listens for a heartbeat, pulling her closer, but he doesn’t hear anything. “Please, Em. You gotta wake up.” He tries to feel for a pulse, but there’s nothing. “C’mon, c’mon, c’mon.” He tries to hear a heartbeat again, but it’s silent and his heart drops. She’s not breathing.

Peter cradles her head with one hand and wraps the other arm around her waist, pulling her against him. Her body stays limp as he holds her tightly, sobbing into her neck.

“ _No_. You can’t do this to me. I _need_ you,” he cries into the crook of her neck, “Please, MJ. I’m so sorry.”

His sobs come out strangled and loud, his grip on her tightening, as if holding her close enough would fix it, and she’d wake up to tell him he was an idiot for taking his mask off in public. But she’s not waking up, and his cries aren’t stopping. He can’t hear anything except the rush of his blood filling up his ears.

He whispers weakly, “I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry. I should’ve— I should’ve saved— I’m so sorry, Em.” 

His whole world caved in on itself, and he starts shaking. He can feel his muscles tighten and his chest squeeze as he sits in the midst of burning rubble, holding the girl he love’s lifeless body in his arms. 

“ _Peter?_ ” He turns to look at the voice through his tears.

His voice cracks, “Ned?”

Ned stands there, his eyes shifting between Peter, burnt and bleeding, with tears streaming down his face, to MJ, who’s body lay cradled in Peter’s arms, unmoving and limp. He opens his mouth to say something, but his words fall empty between them. He slowly walks over to Peter, hands trembling. 

Ned kneels to put a hand on Peter’s shoulder when a flash of light and bright purples and reds burn their eyes. Peter looks around and sees the Tower bridge in flames. He can hear the screeching of car tires and the shouts of people panicking. He feels detached as he looks between MJ, Ned, and the burning bridge. Peter opens his mouth to say something to Ned, but it just feels dry.

“Peter,” Ned looks scared, “You— you have to go.”

Peter closes his eyes, a tear falling down his cheek, and he silently apologizes to MJ. He opens his eyes and looks to Ned and then to her lifeless body, still cradled in his arms. Ned nods silently and moves to lay her body down, supporting her head, hair splaying over his knees — she looks peaceful. Peter grabs her pale hand with his, bringing his hands to his chest and lowering his head. 

He sucks in a shaky breath and stands up, tugging his mask on and heading to the bridge. A cloud had formed over it, colored sparks of electrical light flashing continuously. Peter swings over to land in the middle of the bridge.

He tries to help people trapped in their cars or too hurt to get off of the bridge. The cloud strikes again and more flames spread across the pile up of cars and the charred stone bridge. 

As he watches the electric strikes pummel the bridge, Peter notices that something's off. The lightning is hitting the cars and the cars are catching fire. He may not remember which King let Columbus sail to America, but chemistry is his subject, and he is sure that cars don’t get hit by lightning. They’re conductors and pass the electricity to the ground, so they wouldn’t cause a fire to start.

Peter swings to the top of the bridge’s tower to get a closer look at the electric cloud. He realizes that the cloud isn’t really a cloud and that there’s a mechanical device creating the sparks that are striking the bridge. He turns to look at where the molten monster fell in the river and sees a large, metal frame in the vague shape of the monster, the molten rock had melted off when it entered the water.

So its all fake? These monsters aren’t even real monsters, just some mechanical machines designed to trick him? One of these fake monsters killed MJ? Peter’s mouth dries up and anger boils inside of him, turning his vision red. He feels adrenaline course through his body, charging his muscles, and he clenches his fists. Just as he goes to try and figure out how to stop the giant, electric cloud, he hears something behind him.

It’s Mysterio, and before Peter can ask him to help take down the machine, he sends a stream of green energy straight into Peter’s chest, sending him flying back. He barely shoots out a web to catch himself and swing back onto the bridge, landing to face the bubble-headed magician. 

Peter’s face scrunches in confusion, his hands trembling slightly and his mask eyes squinting. “What- What are you doing? We gotta take down the machine.” A large lightning strike hits in between the two, sending Peter jumping backwards. 

Mysterio rolls his eyes in annoyance, “C’mon Peter, use that big brain of yours.” He raises an arm and waves it in the direction of the lightning cloud, which seemingly turns off, sputtering a few last sparks before dissipating. Peter looks back and forth shakily between Mysterio and where the cloud used to be and intakes a sharp breath as he makes the connection. 

His head feels fuzzy, but looks up at Mysterio anyways. “But- but why, why would you do this to me?” He mouth is numb and he can feel his whole body tingling.

This makes Mysterio burst out in laughter. He looks at Peter, almost in disbelief, shaking his head at him. “This isn’t about _you_ ,” he pauses, “Well, it kind of is — an alternate universe you.”

“What could I have ever done to you?” Peter drops his hands, his voice tired.

His eyes darken. “You let the person I love most in the world die.”

_So it’s only fair that you kill someone I love._ He wants to reply, but Peter thinks of MJ’s body being tossed into a wall, like she weighed nothing, and crumpling to the ground. Tears burn in his eyes and he looks up at Mysterio, not understanding how something someone else did in another world could warrant this punishment. Anger bubbles in the back of his throat, and Peter charges at Mysterio.

He thinks of the crack as MJ hit the wall and kicks Mysterio in the chest. He thinks of the way her body laid lifeless in his arms and webs Mysterio, slamming into the side of the tower. He thinks of her laugh at the carnival and how her eyes light up when she explains the favorite part of her current book, and dodges a stream of green energy. He hears a loud, ringing sound as Mysterio tries again, this time striking him, and sends him flying backward into a car. 

Peter’s chest tightens and his vision blurs, his head pounding. His head rolls back and forth, jumbling his mind. A coherent memory pops up and he grasps onto it, grounding him.

_“You know that’s not how you should be folding your clothes, right?” MJ sighs, pausing her sketch. She looks at Peter from where she sat perched on his desk chair, legs propped up on the desk._

_“Hm?” He stops mid-fold of a shirt he was about to lay on top of the five other ones already stuffed in his suitcase. He looks between the pile of shirts and MJ, furrowing his eyebrows. “What’s wrong with it?”_

_She rolls her eyes and shakes her head slightly. “You have to roll them if you want to fit everything in there. It saves space and you can keep full outfits together.” This makes Peter groan and toss his head back._

_“You couldn’t have told me that before I already packed half of my clothes?” he whines, taking the badly folded clothes out of his suitcase._

_She laughs lightly, shrugging her shoulders. “I like seeing you in a crisis. Plus, I thought you’d figure it out by yourself.”_

_“C’mon, Em. When have I ever figured something out by myself? You know I need you,” he pauses slightly and gulps, “You know, uh, to make sure I’m not an idiot.” She stares at him with something unrecognizable in her eyes._

_She hesitates briefly. “You’re always an idiot, Parker. But glad to be of service,” she ducks her head and pretends to bow, earning a dopey grin from Peter. She shakes her head fondly and returns to drawing in her sketchpad._

_Peter chews his lip and tries to peek over at the sketchbook. She stops her movement and slowly lifts her head to look at Peter._

_“What are you doing?”_

_“Just wanted to see what you’re drawing.” His cheeks flush light pink, and he looks into her eyes._

_MJ tilts her sketchpad for Peter to see. It’s a half finished sketch of his face, eyebrows creased somewhere between frustration and confusion. He’s chewing his bottom lip and his hair flops on his forehead._

_“Like I said, I like seeing you in crisis. Great drawing material. Plus you have good bone structure when you’re confused, so it’s nice for sketching.” She says this casually, turning her focus back to the drawing, beginning to add detail to his hair. Peter stares at her._

_His chest tightens — in the best way. He watches her draw with a soft smile, a warm sensation spreading over his face. She doesn’t seem to notice his internal explosion of feelings, just pausing every once in awhile to erase a stray pencil mark._

He comes back into focus when Mysterio blasts him again, this time barely missing and exploding the car behind him. Peter rolls over and staggers to a stand, shaking his limbs out and pushing the pain to the back of his mind.

Blood rushes in Peter’s ears and he dodges Mysterio’s hits as he climbs over flaming cars to reach him. He shoots a strand of web to wrap around Mysterio’s hand and Mysterio tries to shoot at Peter, but the webs block the green power, sending him flying back onto the street. 

This cracks his armor, and his head smacks the ground. Mysterio groans and tries to get up, but Peter already webbed a car and is swinging it over to slam into him. Mysterio doesn’t move for a moment and Peter’s heart rate spikes, worry coursing through his body. 

Mysterio groans and waves his good arm. Peter lunges to web him down, but Mysterio is already gone, a dusty cloud left instead. Peter is left standing in the middle of an empty bridge.

He’s surrounded by cars — piled up and dented, in flames. Peter looks around for people, but there’s no one. He stumbles and tries to breathe, pain crushing down on him. Peter reaches up to take his mask off, his hands trembling. He blinks back tears as the dust settles around him, stinging his face and throat. 

Numbness begins to crawl up his body as he tries to get his mind to focus. His suit is still burnt and he has cuts all over his body, bleeding. Ash settles into his hair and he begins to catch a few breaths.

“Peter!” He turns around weakly to see MJ running towards him, worry etched across her face. Was he hallucinating? The pain must be getting him. There’s no way she could be there running towards him when he had just watched her stop breathing and held her lifeless body in his arms. She looked so real, but he had just seen her—

MJ reaches him and throws her arms around him, pressing against his body. Reflexively he wraps his arms around her waist, pulling her close. She was warm and there, and he could feel her. He squeezes tighter, closing his eyes and lets a tear fall. She’s real. He doesn’t know how but she’s right there, holding onto him.

“Em. I thought I lost you,” his voice breaks and he buries his head further into her neck, gripping her tightly. At this, she pulls back to rest her hands on his shoulders and look at him in confusion. 

“What are you talking about? I went back to the market when that fire-molten-thing attacked us,” her voice was soft and questioning. She scans his face, breathing out shakily when she notices his tears and the large scrape on his right cheek. She meets his eyes and pulls him back into a tight hug, wrapping her arms around his neck and pressing her head next to his. 

“I’m right here, Peter,” she whispers quietly. He breaks into a sob, salty tears running down his face and falling onto MJ’s shirt. She just pulls him closer, and brings a hand up to run gently through his hair. She lets him cry and hold onto her, soothingly running her fingers through his curls and rubbing his back.

They stand like that for awhile until Peter can’t cry anymore. He slowly untangles his arms from around MJ to rest his hands on her waist and look at her. 

“You- you were,” he swallows, “by the dock and that monster, it- it hit you and you,” his voice lowers to a strained whisper, “you hit the wall. And then you weren’t moving, and I- I tried to wake you up, but- but you weren’t breathing.”

MJ moves her hand to his neck and gently runs her thumb along his jaw. Her jaw clenches, eyes darkening as she looks fiercely into his eyes. “I wasn’t there. That wasn’t me. I’m okay, Peter,” her voice cracks slightly, “I’m okay, I promise.”

He reaches up to hold the wrist of her hand cupping his face, breathing shallowly, “And then Mysterio showed up. It was all fake. Everything. The monsters and- and,” Peter pauses, his chest emptying as he realizes, “and you dying—” his voice drops, and almost inaudibly, “it was just an illusion.” 

MJ brings him close to rest her forehead against his, cupping his face with both hands. He rubs his thumbs in circles on her waist. She takes a deep breath, closing her eyes, prompting him to do the same.

“It’s okay, I’m here. I’m safe,” she mumbles, pulling him into another hug. Peter wraps his arms around her again, just feeling her warm body pressed against his — real and alive. He breathes deeply, pulling her tighter and hiding his face in her neck. She’s alive.

━━━

It’s later that night, at the hotel, when Peter gets to talk to MJ again. He suffers through Ned’s interrogation and a restless afternoon, unable to close his eyes without seeing MJ slam into the wall. He knows that she’s okay and just a few rooms down the hall, but it doesn’t help much.

Ned is already asleep when he hears a knock on the door. Peter walks over to the door and opens it a crack to see who it is. At the sight of MJ, donning flannel pajama pants and a black camisole, he takes in a breath and opens the door, gesturing for her to come in.

MJ tucks a piece of hair behind her ear and crosses her arms, shifting her weight between legs. “Um, I was actually wondering if you wanted to take a walk for a bit.”

“Yeah, of course.” Peter looks at her standing in the doorway, hair loose and falling over her shoulders, with her golden skin glowing under the fluorescent hotel lights. He grabs something out of his backpack on the stand next to the door and shoves it in his pocket, following MJ out the door and shutting it quietly behind him.

They head down the hall silently. They’re on the first floor, and reach the end of the hallway, where MJ pushes opens a door to the small garden next to the hotel. They walk down a path to a bench hidden by a cluster of green bushes.

MJ sits down, looking at Peter to sit next to her. He sits down, close enough for their legs to touch, and folds his hands together in his lap. He breathes slowly, looking up at the night sky above them. It’s clear and if he tried, he could probably point out a few constellations. 

Peter turns to look at MJ, who was watching the stars, fiddling with her hands, not looking at him as she speaks quietly, “I know today has been, well,” she lets out a dry laugh, “crazy, but I wanted to ask you how you are.”

Peter drops his head to stare at the ground. “Um, well, I doubt sleep is gonna be fun for awhile,” he smiles wryly, “Everytime I close my eyes I keep picturing you — “

MJ turns to him abruptly. “I’m safe.” He looks at her, searching her face.

She swallows loudly and reaches over to take Peter’s hand, “And I promise some batshit crazy dude in a bubble head won’t be able to get rid of me that easily.” She gives him a small smile, absentmindedly rubbing circles on the back of his hand.

Peter lets out a shaky breath, squeezing her hand tightly. “It just- it felt so real, and knowing that I put you in danger just by being your friend, it’s a horrible feeling,” he looks at her and his eyes darken, “I already put May and Ned in enough danger, and I don’t want what happened today become a reality,” his jaw clenches. “He went after you because he knows I care about you, and he’s still out there.” The last part is a whisper, like Peter doesn’t want to admit it yet.

MJ tilts her head, eyes softening. “Peter. I’ve known who you are for awhile and trust me, I’ve thought about what would happen if one day some bad guy found out your identity and thought ‘oh, i can use her to get to him’. I’ve also decided that it was worth having you in my life,” she turns to look at the ground, biting her lip, before turning back to look in his eyes. “It might not always seem like it, but I care about you, too, loser.” Her voice is quiet, and she turns back to intently observe the ground at their feet.

Peter reaches up to brush back a piece of her hair that fell loose, cups her cheek, and turns her head to look at him. His voice is barely audible and his heart is beating out of his chest. “I don’t want to lose you, Em.”

She leans into his touch, leaning her body closer to his. “I don’t want to lose you either, Peter.”

They’re inches away from each other now, his hand cupping her cheek and her hand in his other one. MJ searches his eyes, asking a silent question. Peter answers by closing the distance, pressing his lips softly against hers. She responds by pushing back, bringing a hand up to run through his soft curls. 

Peter’s chest fills with warmth and he moves his lips against her, feeling that she’s there, and she isn’t an illusion. His hand cupping her jaw strokes a thumb across her cheek, gently caressing her soft skin. She wraps one of his curls around her finger, tugging slightly. He presses more into her, opening his mouth slightly. 

MJ pulls away to take a breath, pressing her forehead against Peter’s, and smiles. She presses a feather light kiss on his lips and pulls back again to look him in the eyes. His eyes are shining and a smile grows on his face.

Peter reaches to grab something out of his pocket. “Um, I was waiting to give you this because I hadn’t figured out how to tell you that I like you, and now, well, I’m pretty sure you already know.”

He opens the gift bag to take out a small jewelry box. He opens it to show MJ the small spider web charm on the necklace. MJ looks down at the necklace and bites her lip, trying to contain a smile. She gently removes it from the box and runs a finger over the charm, looking up at Peter.

“You got it?”

He rubs the back of his neck with his hand, cheeks tinting pink. “Yeah, you looked like you wanted it, so I figured why not.”

“I can’t believe you did that,” she shakes her head fondly, “A bit stereotypically alpha male, but still sweet. Thank you.” He smiles sheepishly at her, watching as she unhooks the necklace and rehooks it around her neck. 

Peter takes her hand and kisses it, bowing with his head down. “Of course, my queen, anything for you.”

She pushes his shoulder and rolls her eyes, but doesn’t take her hand away. “Shut up, Peter. You’re such a loser.”

He laughs loudly and leans in to press his lips softly against hers. He pulls back and smiles lopsidedly at her. “Yeah, but you love it.”

MJ’s eyes flick up to meet his, shining brightly to match the smile spreading across her face. “I do.”

**Author's Note:**

> a little side note but the title is from fOoL fOr YoU by zayn malik because i love that song and i haven’t been able to get it out of my head for the past five days


End file.
